JACKSON, Miss. - In Mississippi, where elected officials have a long history of praising self-sufficiency and condemning federal anti-poverty programs, a welfare scandal has exposed how millions of dollars were diverted to the rich and powerful — including pro athletes — instead of helping some of the neediest people in the nation.

The misuse of welfare money rankles Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, executive director of One Voice, a nonprofit that works to help economically vulnerable communities in Mississippi.

“It’s shameful and disgusting, especially when we’ve been a state where we hear discussion every year about poor people not needing resources and poor people being lazy and just needing to get up to work,” she said.

The state has ranked among the poorest in the U.S. for decades, but only a fraction of its federal welfare money has been going toward direct aid to families. Instead, the Mississippi Department of Human Services allowed well-connected people to fritter away tens of millions of welfare dollars from 2016 to 2019, according to the state auditor and state and federal prosecutors.

Former Human Services Director John Davis has pleaded guilty to charges tied to welfare misspending in one of the state’s largest public corruption cases.

The scandal has ensnared high-profile figures, including retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, who is one of more than three dozen defendants in a civil lawsuit that the current Human Services director filed to try to recover some of the welfare money wasted while Mr. Davis was in charge.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money helped fund pet projects of the wealthy, including $5 million for a volleyball arena that Mr. Favre supported at his alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi, said Mississippi Auditor Shad White. Mr. Favre’s daughter played volleyball at the school starting in 2017.

Another $2.1 million of TANF money went toward an attempt to develop a concussion drug by a company in which Mr. Favre was an investor, Mr. White said. Mr. Favre has asked a judge to dismiss him from the lawsuit, with his attorney arguing that the Department of Human Services — not Mr. Favre — is responsible for “grossly improper and unlawful handling of welfare funds.” Mr. Favre is not facing criminal charges.

Some of the money that was intended to help low-income families was spent on luxury travel for Mr. Davis, on people close to him, drug rehab for a former pro wrestler and boot camp-style gym classes for public officials.

In contrast, some welfare recipients say they found little relief but plenty of bureaucratic headaches from collecting modest monthly TANF payments.

“What may seem like an easy handout program is not,” said Brandy Nichols, a single mother of four children age 8 and younger.

Mississippi requires TANF recipients to prove they are actively looking for employment and Ms. Nichols, of Jackson, said proving the job search is time-consuming.

“It’s work, and sometimes work takes away my ability to find a true, stable job,” she said.

TANF is for families that have at least one child younger than 18. To qualify in Mississippi, the household income must be at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. The current upper income limit for a family of three is $680 a month.

TheAssociated Press researched poverty statistics for 1982 through 2021, which show Mississippi was the poorest state for 19 of those 40 years and among the five poorest for 38 years. In 2021, the U.S. poverty rate was 11.6 percent and Mississippi’s was the highest in the nation, 17.4 percent.

Federal statistics show a dramatic decrease in the number of Mississippi residents receiving individual TANF aid starting in 2012, the first year Republican Phil Bryant was governor, and continuing into the term of current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. Former Gov. Bryant chose Mr. Davis to lead the Department of Hu- man Services.

During the 2012 budget year, 24,180 Mississippians received TANF. By the 2021 budget year, that was down to 2,880 in a state with nearly 3 million residents.

Robert G. “Bob” Anderson, the current Mississippi Department of Human Services executive director, told Democratic state lawmakers in October that about 90 percent of people who apply for TANF in Mississippi don’t receive it, either because their applications are denied or because they abandon their applications.

Those who do qualify get the lowest payments in the country, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

April Jackson, a single mother with children ranging in age from a few months to 13 years old, said she received about $190 a month in TANF when she was pregnant with her third child.

Eleven years ago, the monthly payment “bought diapers and stuff like that.” But she said that after she started receiving child support from the father of her oldest son, Human Services ended her TANF benefits because she was suddenly over the income limit for the aid.

“It messed me up real bad,” said Ms. Jackson, who lives on a tight budget. “I wasn’t able to pay my part of the bills. I couldn’t buy my kids clothes for school or the shoes they needed.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said that in 2020, New Hampshire had the highest TANF payment in the coun- try, $862 a month for a single parent and one child. Mississippi’s monthly payment for a family of two was $146.

In 2021, Mississippi increased its TANF payments by $90 per month, per family — the state’s first increase since 1999 — at Mr. Anderson’s recommendation. The increase cost $2.8 million, and Republican Sen. Joey Fillingane said during a Senate debate that it was all paid by federal money, not state money.

“We’re not talking about a lot of money,” Sen. Fillingane said. “These are the poorest of the poor in our state.”